Two Utah Managed Care Plans To Stop Covering Medicaid Beneficiaries

Utah's two largest Medicaid managed care plans have said they will no longer participate in the program because it is not profitable, the Salt Lake Tribune reports. Intermountain Health Care, which lost $11 million on its Medicaid managed care plan during the fiscal year that ended July 1, said it will end the plan by 2003, and UnitedHealthcare said it will end its Medicaid HMO by September. About 50,000 Medicaid beneficiaries are enrolled in the two HMOs. While other HMOs have said they will continue to participate in the state program, patient advocates expressed concern that the 50,000 beneficiaries affected by the plan closures will "overburden" Medicaid fee-for-service providers. Lauren Florence of Utah Health Alliance said the HMOs' decision not to participate in Medicaid is simply meant to reduce costs and represents a "greed[y] and cavalier attitude" (Goodman, Salt Lake Tribune, 7/11).